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Croatia - Turkey (QF) (20 Jun 08)

Two surprises, in the case to Croatia is a nice surprise, the guys are playing very good, is a "compact" team that play a effective footbal. In Turkey case, well i dont like the way that play and i dont think that have tools to make something versus Croatia.

Wow, it started nicely, but the game got so boring. I dont mind seeing 0-0 draws if tactics are involved. But this had to be one of the worst games I have ever seen. I slept through out the second half.
Then the drama in extra. 119th minute. Rustu makes a blunder, and Croats score. They are celebrating, no way Turks can come back now. One thing they did wrong was not kick the ball forward.
Turks get a free kick in their own half. Rustu comes to take it. They are afraid the final whistle may go before they could take the kick. Rustu lobs in up high, into the Croat penalty area. Croatain defenders are already celebrating, and it falls to the turkish guy, who scores, with the last kick of the game.!!!! Wow, just wow.

On the game play, Croats probably deserved to go, but Turks had much more determination.
And holy shit they have big balls. The tournament should have been over so long ago. 93rd minute, they find a goal against Swiss. In 15 minutes they find 3 goals against Czech's to go through, and now this.

They played a good game(maybe a little worse than what they played in the group), but still were slightly better than Turkay througout the game(the bar).

But it's the part of the game, someone has to loose, and it was a very close tie with Turkey, who is also a decent team, amazingly determined(they scored in 93rd minute with Swiss, then scored 3 goles in 15 minutes with Czech, and now this).

Croatia can't be very down. Thye played to win, and they had their chances, they didn't choke, but were a little unfortunate. I think they could reach semis, but it would be very hard to go to the final I think.

Turkey on the other hand showed amazing determination from the first minute of extra time. They literaly have eaten the grass, they were running with all they had left, and they looked a lot more than the Croats, the side, that wants to progress. And this amazing comeback.

I mean you concede in 2 minutes from the end of the extra time, and you still are trying to win with everything you got. Most of the teams would probably just lay down in that moment and start crying. The pens were just formality. Turkey was stuned(in a good way) by the come-back, and Croatia was almost devastated.

So congrats to the Croatia for showing a good football in those championship, but someone has to loose, and Croatia can be proud with the way they've lost it(I mean this in a good way, like Jose said recently).

But no matter who would progress, I think Germany is already one foot in the final.

Turks must be feeling great. Two incredible comebacks in the last two. Regardless of how bad they'll get beat by Germany (and it's gonna be rough with all those injuries/suspensions for the Turks) they should be proud of how well they've done. Shame about Croatia because they were the better team. Slaven Bilic is one cool dude.